


Never Underestimate a Hawk

by cdreaiton



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 02:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8779000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cdreaiton/pseuds/cdreaiton
Summary: Clint is injured during a mission, and even after he's cleared by the doctor, the team doesn't think he's ready. So he proves that he is using an old game he played when he was at SHIELD.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a part of my Little Hawk story, but I liked it better with Clint as an adult. So here it is! I hope you enjoy it!

"I'm fine! The doctor even cleared me for duty!" Clint argues with Steve as the team is preparing to leave on a mission.

"Cleared or not, you're still wearing that patch over your eye, and until it's gone, you're staying home. Your vision is your strength, and you're missing half of it right now," Steve tries to reason with the archer.

During a mission the week before, Clint had been gathering intel from a Hydra base when the world's largest, and brightest flash bang had gone off, rendering him temporarily blind. His left eye had recovered quickly, and since it's his targeting eye, the doctor had cleared him after he'd hit every single shot out of a hundred when he'd gone in for testing. But his right eye is still recovering, and only has about 75% accuracy at the moment.

"You saw my results," Clint continues, trying to prove his point, "I'm almost as good as ever. I'm only missing an eighth of my vision at most, and even then, I'm still a better shot than Tony, and he has a targeting program built into his suit helmet. So I'm going."

"I said no, and I meant it," Steve says firmly, slipping into his 'Captain' voice, the one that makes people turn and listen, "Part of my job as team leader is to make sure everyone on this team stays safe and comes home in one piece. I can't do that if one of my teammates goes into the fight already injured. Once your vision is back to normal, you can go back out with us. Until then, _stay home_."

Clint glares at Steve and turns on his heel, storming out of the room without a word. Steve sighs and hangs his head a bit, but he knows he's made the right call. And once Clint calms down, he'll see it too. Natasha lays an understanding hand on his arm, and Steve squares his shoulders, heading for the jet.

Once he reaches his room, Clint slams the door hard, rattling the walls a bit. He understands Steve's perspective, he really does, but that doesn't stop the blow from stinging. If there's one thing he hates in the universe most, it's feeling useless. And right now, he does.

He grabs the phone and dials Phil's number. His former handler turned lover has always been good at being a listening ear when some protocol or other is giving Clint a headache. Phil, true to form, picks up on the second ring.

"Agent Barton," Phil starts, ever the consummate professional unless they're alone in a room together, "Is there a problem? We just got word that the Avengers had been mobilized to deal with the Hydra base we found. Has that changed?"

"No, Phil," Clint says without a single ounce of professionalism, and a bit of snark slipping into his tone, " _The Avengers_ just left to deal with it. I'm at home under house arrest until Steve decides otherwise."

"You _are_ one of the Avengers, Clint. And I sincerely doubt you're actually under house arrest. I take it your eye hasn't fully recovered?" Phil asks, understanding in his voice.

"75% accuracy for me is better than 100% accuracy for any one else! I'm fine! I'm tired of sitting here, with nothing to do, while they go off and work without me. It's like they think I'm useless. Like my being on the team is just them humoring me. I have no place with them. This injury is just an excuse for them to keep me out of their way for awhile," Clint retorts, not truly understanding how he'd been feeling until he'd said it out loud.

"Clint, you know that's not true. You belong on that team. But maybe it's time we _showed_ them that. Like we use to in the old days when people didn't appreciate your skills," Phil suggests, a hint of a smile in his voice.

Clint brightens at the suggestion, and they spend the next half hour talking about the specifics, though not all of them, cause that would spoil the game. When the conversation ends, Clint feels much better about things, and goes down to the archery range to practice.

***

"Where are we going?" Tony asks for the hundredth time since Phil had herded them all into a jet and taken off without a hint of explanation.

Phil hands the controls over to JARVIS, and turns to the team.

"We're going on a training exercise," Phil starts.

"Without Clint and Bruce and Thor? How are we supposed to train without three of our members?" Tony fires back at the former handler.

"Bruce will be assisting you from HQ as this is an urban training exercise and we want to avoid as much collateral damage as possible. Thor is staying behind for the same reasons. As for Clint... He's the exercise," Phil informs them with a wide grin that's almost scary coming from the agent.

Natasha groans and lets her head fall back against the seat rest. She closes her eyes for a moment before grabbing her guns and unloading them carefully. Phil, as helpful as always, hands her several clips of rubber bullets and she reloads.

"Why the ammo change?" Steve asks, watching Natasha carefully, "And what do you mean Clint's the exercise? He's suppose to be home recovering from his injury."

"He has recovered, as I believe he has pointed out to you, Captain," Phil says, but there is no malice in his voice, "And the exercise is simply. I am going to drop you at a predetermined location in a city Clint has never been to. In this case, we are going to Portland, Oregon. Clint was dropped off at this location," Phil points to a spot on a digital map he's pulled up of he city, "Exactly 36 minutes ago. He has no money, no ID's but his driver's license, and he has no idea where you're coming in and when. The game is simple. You have twenty four hours to find and capture him. You have access to all of SHIELD's databases, as well as everything JARVIS has. Clint has his bow and a quiver full of rubber tipped arrows. He doesn't even have a grappling hook. He has no phone, no GPS, and, short of stealing, no way to get either of those things."

"Sounds like quite the little game you've put together here, Coulson. I applaud you," Tony says with a mock bow.

"We've played this game before, with SHIELD agents from all across the globe. Usually around the time they started giving him flack for using an out dated weapon. He wants to show you that he's not useless. That he has just as much right to be on this team as any of you," Phil holds up a hand to silence Steve when he opens his mouth to interrupt, "I know that none of you think he's useless or a burden on the team. But with this injury, it doesn't stop him from feeling that way. So, we play the game. If you win, he'll stay at home until his eye is completely healed. If he wins, he gets to start going on missions with you again."

"How much information does he have?" Natasha asks suddenly, before Steve can respond to Phil's comments.

"He knows the rules of the game. That's it. I didn't even tell him what city I was dropping him in. Though, by now, I should think he knows," Phil comments drily, "He's been cut off from HQ. His passcodes will not work for the next twenty four hours. He's alone, in an unknown city miles from home, with nothing but his weapon and the clothes on his back. You have every advantage. All you have to do is find him and catch him. Once you have him securely on the jet, you win the game."

"How many times has he played this particular game?" Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

"One hundred and nineteen times. This will make one twenty. Twelve of those games were played against Natasha," Phil offers. 

Steve and Tony smile.

"How hard could this be if Tasha's won twelve times?" Tony smirks.

"He said I've _played_ twelve times," Natasha smiles knowingly at her teammates, "I've never won. Ever."

"How many times has he won?" Steve inquires of Phil.

"One hundred and nineteen games. One hundred and nineteen wins. And he's only been caught twelve times. Natasha is the only one who's ever caught him," Phil answers, looking a bit smug as he brags about his lover.

"He's never lost?!" Tony exclaims incredulously.

"Not once. We'll see how you do," Phil grins as the jet lands.

***

TIME ELAPSED 0:05:00

"Okay, we know Clint better than anyone else. So we have a decent chance of catching him. And once we catch him, Tony and I can make sure he doesn't get away," Steve says, trying to encourage his teammates.

"We need to start checking roofs," Tony suggests first, "I'll start sweeping the streets and have JARVIS run facial recognition software on all available cameras."

"Then I guess I'll start on roofs. Tasha, you check any places you think he might go."

Natasha nods and the team splits up.

***

TIME ELAPSED 1:29:00

"You haven't found him yet? You have a super suit with a locator that's tapped into SHIELD's facial recognition whatever," Steve says exasperatedly as he looks around the next in a long line of roofs he's been checking, though he personally thinks it's a useless endeavor, "How can you not have found him?"

"Oh I don't know, probably because he's a super spy who knows how to avoid cameras and can probably change his looks at will," Tony snaps at the Captain, flying over yet another city street and finding no sign of the archer.

"Tasha? Do you have anything?" Steve asks, ignoring Tony's outburst with a sigh.

"Not yet. But I might have an idea," she comments with a smile in her voice.

***

TIME ELAPSED 6:13:00

 

"HOW IS HE STILL HIDING?!" Tony screams into his helmet, frustrated that with all his technology he has made exactly zero progress in finding the archer.

"Like you said," Tasha retorts, her voice sounding a little upset, "Super spy. He's good at this."

"Any luck on your idea?" Steve asks, sounding almost out of breath from all the running and jumping he's done the last several hours.

"No pings yet. But if he heads to one of the communication towers through out the city, we'll get him," Natasha assures him, her confidence sounding only slightly strained, "And now that Steve's spreading the isotopes on all the roofs, we should be able to pin point him once he touches foot on one of them."

"I'm impressed that we haven't even seen him yet," Steve comments drily.

"Remember, he's not just a spy. He's an assassin. Not seeing him is sort of the point," Natasha says with a tired smirk.

***

TIME ELAPSED 14:51:00

"I give up," Tony says as he sits in the jet eating his lunch, "This is impossible. I think he just left. He's not even in the city."

"He's here," Tasha assures them, "It's one of the rules. He can't leave the city limits until the game is over."

"Then how have we not found him?!" Tony practically screams at the ceiling.

"There's a reason no one has ever won this game Tony. I think we've been underestimating our teammate," Steve comments, smiling at no one in particular, "Come on. We have several more hours to go. Let's find him."

***

TIME ELAPSED 23:59:59

The team walks back to the jet, heads hung in defeat. They hadn't even so much as _found_ Clint, let alone catch him and bring him in, and they're all feeling decidedly depressed. As soon as they stow their weapons, Tasha turns to the pilot's seat and finds it already occupied.

"Took you guys long enough. I've been waiting for you to get back for the last three hours," Clint spins around in the seat and gives them a huge shit eating grin, his eye patch still sitting over his right eye.

They stare at him open mouthed for several long seconds, unbelieving at what they're seeing.

"Wha...? How...?" Tony starts, unable to form and actual sentence.

"Where...? When...?" Steve adds, while Natasha takes up the co-pilot's seat with a sigh and a slight shake of her head.

"I tailed you. Soon as I saw you landing, I rushed to your location and tailed you. Heard all your plans, knew what you were doing. And since you all avoided cameras, all I had to do was keep my head down and no one ever saw me. Easy peasy, rice and cheesy. So. Thanks for making my score an even one twenty. But we got an Avengers assemble call about five minutes ago. We should get going," Clint responds, taking the flight controls and closing the back door of the jet before taking off.

"I guess we should," Steve comments, patting Clint on the back once before taking his seat, "Glad to have you back, Hawkeye."


End file.
